Search: “Iraq”

So what are YOU afraid of?  Snakes?  Sharks?  Public speaking?  For me it is heights.  I have a hard time even climbing a ladder to clean out the eavestroughs at home.  Seriously, a metre off the ground and I get weak in the knees.  Yeah, I know, what a wimp! What about terrorism?  Does it […]

You have to hand it to Islamic State (IS) and its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi – whose demise by the way has achieved Mark Twainian status (“rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated”).  Despite the loss of the Caliphate, the deaths of thousands of its members, the virtual drying up of its fighter pipeline […]

An edited version of this piece appeared in The Hill Times on July 23, 2018 Is Alex Neve, the secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada insane? Full disclosure: I have been a supporter of Amnesty International and its work for decades.  I admire the positions they adopt and the advocacy they employ in the interests of […]

We need to take a realistic approach to all this. No, not all returning women and children pose a danger to our societies and not all are inhuman monsters.

Sometimes calling an act of serious violence terrorism is really easy.  Like when Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum narrowly escaped a deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport as he returned home from more than a year in exile in Turkey the other day (Taliban or Islamic State).  Or when Somalia’s al Shabaab says “We first attacked […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on July 16, 2018 There are times when you read something that makes your blood boil and demands a response.  One such time occurred to me last week within the pages of this very Hill Times in an op-ed by Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the National Council […]

Tunisia presents an interesting case study when it comes to terrorism.  The North African country was, of course, where the ‘Arab Spring’ began on December 18, 2010 (coincidentally my birthday!) when a crowd protested the self immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi who killed himself the day before when police had confiscated his wares and a female […]

This piece appeared in The Hill Times on June 11, 2018. All is takes is a cursory glance at the news on any given day to conclude – erroneously as I hope to show – that Islamist extremist terrorism is a daily event that threatens us all.  We read of bombings in Afghanistan, beheadings in […]

Hubris, defined as “excessive pride or self-confidence or arrogance”, is a human emotion that has long fascinated me.  There are individuals who exercise it with alarming regularity – a certain US President whose name rhymes with ‘dump’ readily comes to mind – and it is often seen as a fatal flaw that results in someone’s downfall.  For  instance, Napoleon could […]

When we think of terrorism and terrorists our minds usually turn to men, and for good reason.  It is an undeniable fact that most terrorists are men.  Full stop.  Whether this has anything to do with testosterone or men seeking to establish themselves in the world or whatever all remain interesting questions but irrespective of […]